Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC Pte, is among investors that helped US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase raise $300 million last year.
While Coinbase said it garnered investment in its October funding round from firms including Tiger Global Management, Wellington Management and Andreessen Horowitz, GIC’s participation hasn’t previously been disclosed.
With the foray into digital assets, possibly its first, GIC joins a select group of large sophisticated investors, including Yale University, that are willing to dip their toes into the crypto industry. Most institutional money managers have shunned digital assets because they’re largely unregulated and have been used to finance illicit trade.
Additionally, Coinbase’s October funding round gave it a valuation of $8 billion, placing it among the ranks of the world’s most-valuable start-ups, which is all the more impressive given the collapse in crypto prices last year.
Last year, the firm was forecasting revenue for 2018 of almost $1.3 billion, a figure that largely comes from the commissions on trades on its platform, as well as gains and losses in its own crypto holdings.
Source Islamic Business&Finance